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Ponting must call on AB for advice

Robert Craddock in the Daily Telegraph suggests that Ricky Ponting desperately needs a meeting with Allan Border to work out a battle-plan for the cricketing recession Australia had to have.

Robert Craddock in the Daily Telegraph suggests that Ricky Ponting desperately needs a meeting with Allan Border to work out a battle-plan for the cricketing recession Australia had to have.

Border is the man with the plan to handle it because he went through that and much more in the 1980s. Losing a Test is a big drama for Australia these days. Border had such a weak team in the 1980s they went three years without winning a series.
He knows all about fast bowlers with confidence problems, players being rushed into sides before they are ready and players trying to live up to impossible expectations after the retirements of Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh.

In the Courier-Mail, Craddock speaks to another former captain, Kim Hughes, about the challenges facing Ponting.

If there is one line of advice you would give Ponting what would it be?

They have an old saying in Madras ... to lose patience is to lose the battle. That's what he needs to remember. And that incidents like the one with Brett Lee might have been glossed over a few years ago when the team was going well. But they will be big headlines now that the tide has turned. And where once there was stability now there will be a steady flow of players in and out of the team. But I have a lot of confidence in Ponting. He will handle it.

Brydon Coverdale is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets here